Bio:

Leokas was born to a Halfling mother, Gursey Woodsheart-Silvershaper, and her husband, Belril Silvershaper. His conception occurred on the eve of their wedding night, whereupon the unsuspecting couple resided in the inn room above that of a young sorcerer. He was attempting to summon a minotaur for his research, as a summoned creature would obey his bidding and the few minotaurs known to exist on the continent were considered extremely hostile towards outsiders. When nothing came of his ceremony, this sorcerer became disheartened and assumed he was not yet capable of the feat.

In truth, however, the spell had not failed, but rather misfired. The couple in the room above, as it turns out, were spatially in the center of the circle’s influence and the minotaur was “summoned” to the point of conception. Several months later, the Halflings’ child was to be born. Imagine the shock the pair experienced when the infant minotaur was revealed to the mother, who had nearly died birthing the child. The woman decided to raise the child as her own nonetheless, though Belril was against the decision, and indeed he would never consider the young Leokas his son.

In less than a year, it was obvious that Leokas was growing quite quickly, not only physically but intellectually as well. This growth was certainly beyond what could be considered normal for Halflings. However, perhaps credited to the methods of his birth, he stopped gaining in size by the age of two. By all appearances, he looked to be a fully-grown minotaur in miniature. However, despite bearing the appearance of such a frightening creature, Leokas was treated with contempt by the Halfling community he resided in. Few accepted him as anything more than an animal or beast, and some went so far as to bully or even beat up the young minotaur. All the same, Leokas took to learning the performing arts from his mother: how to act, sing, and dance (he found tap dance to be uniquely suited to him), as well as learning to walk in silence since his hooves attracted so much attention to him.

By his sixth birthday, however, Leokas came to the conclusion that he would never truly fit in the society he was born into, and decided to seek out his own kind. He bade his mother goodbye and thanked her for raising him as well as she did, and he told Belril (which is how he always referred to the man as a show of respect) he was leaving to make the people happier, and to find his own happiness. Belril had no objections to this, and to Leokas’s surprise, actually shook his hand and told Leokas he wished for him to find a place he could be at peace.

Leokas began his search by stringing together what information he could gather, beginning with an old woman who resided on the edge or town who was said to know much about the wilds. When he arrived at the woman’s home, and convincing her he meant no harm, she revealed that she personally knew very little about minotaurs. She was an apothecary, and she collected her herbs and such from near the wilds’ edge. There was, however, a mountain man whom she regularly traded supplies in exchange for ingredients from deeper in, and suggested he might know something. She warned Leokas that the man would not be so polite and easily convinced of his intentions as she was.

When Leokas reached the mountain the woman had told him about, he quickly became aware he was being watched, though he could not figure from where. Still, he decided to proceed forward with caution, and it was not long before the mountain man attacked. Leokas loudly and clearly stated his intentions, though the man did not relent. Leokas merely attempted to defend himself until he was brought to unconsciousness.
Leokas awoke some time the next day to find the mountain man had bandaged Leokas’s wounds. The man told Leokas that he was originally planning on killing him, but upon hearing his intentions decided to test him instead. The man told him that if he encountered the minotaurs, Leokas would be considered little more than a runt and certainly be killed by them. Thus, he offered to train Leokas, if Leokas would stay with him for the next few months and help him through the winter.

Leokas accepted. For the next few months he learned to survive in the wilds, how to hunt and gather, to sneak through brush and avoid predators. He was taught to fight with axes and learned the value of having a thick hide. This was made thicker by wearing leather armor made from the beasts he helped hunt. When it came time for Leokas to leave, he was gifted by the man (who never gave Leokas his name) a greataxe, the favored weapon of minotaurs. The man laughed when he presented to Leokas, as it almost appeared too unwieldy for a minotaur who was nearly the same size as the axe itself.

In his search for minotaurs, Leokas briefly traveled with a small group of adventurers who were going the same direction as him. One night, while they were staying at a tavern, one of his companions was talking to a man who referred to Leokas as “a pet”. This had never happened to Leokas before, not even among the Halflings. He was angry at the man for insulting him, but he decided to let it pass. That was until it happened again and his companion laughed with the man, and Leokas was livid. After he referred to Leokas one more time as a pet, Leokas flew into a rage. He charged the man, full force with his horns and gored him. When the man fell to the ground, Leokas perched over him and punched him again and again, screaming “I AM NOT A PET!” again and again. It took the full efforts of his companions to remove Leokas, but it was not soon enough for the unlucky man. Leokas left his companions shortly after that with little complaint from them.

It was from that event Leokas garnered a severe hatred for the term “pet”. Since that day, he decided that if anyone were to call him a pet, he would give only one warning, no exceptions. Should they do so again, he attacks; if they are lucky enough to live, he does not attack again unless they retaliate.

It was several days later while traversing a mountain range that Leokas finally encountered a pair of minotaurs, obviously scouts. They captured him and sequestered him until they determined that he only wanted to join them. They asked him his age, figuring he was only a child, though they were confused by the maturity of his appearance, horns and all. When he told them the circumstances of his birth, and how he came to be there, they unbound him and brought him back to their camp. To his surprise, there was a full clan there, numbering over 40 including the women and children. Nearly half of that were warriors.

Surprisingly, the clan accepted him incredibly quickly, despite his nature. Leokas entertained them with stories he learned from his mother as well as songs and dances. He learned to fight better from them, and even taught them a thing or two. By the end of his second year with them, Leokas underwent their adulthood initiation and fully joined with the clan. His initiation was a fight with an adult in the clan, and the condition of success was to survive. Leokas’s size worked tremendously to his favor, and he easily won. From that point on, Leokas served as a combat trainer for the others to learn how to fight smaller, more agile opponents. For the first time, Leokas believed he had found his happiness.

A few years later, some time after Leokas turned 10, he was out on patrol with another member of the clan. It was a routine patrol, as the clan had moved to a secluded area with no other clans controlling the area. Everything was going fine until Leokas’s partner heard a noise nearby, something neither recognized. When they approached the direction of the noise, disaster struck. From seemingly out of nowhere, a volley of arrows were launched into Leokas’s partner. He charged a tree and felled a human, whom he managed to kill before the next volley killed him.

Leokas was not so lucky as to simply die. While the first volley launched arrows at his partner, Leokas was netted and pulled up to hang from a tree. It was humiliating, and Leokas couldn’t reach his dagger to cut himself free. As Leokas struggled, the humans came out of hiding and began talking in a foreign tongue. Leokas stopped moving to attempt to listen to what they were saying. One of the humans realized what Leokas was doing and hit him in the head from behind, knocking Leokas unconscious.

When Leokas awoke, he was in a small caged wagon, stripped entirely of his possessions. The most Leokas could figure was they were heading east, judging by the sun. When they stopped at night, the humans tried to speak with him, though Leokas refused to answer. From what little he could gather, Leokas figured they believed him to be a child from his size, and he wasn’t about to correct them. This went on for days, until they reached a seaport. Leokas resigned himself to his fate, figuring he was to become a slave or such, and had one last long, deep gaze at the land he would likely never see again. The Folgari Islands had been his home for his entire life, whether it was the Halfling community he never truly fit into, or the minotaur clan he had found peace and happiness with, neither of which he felt he might ever have in the place he was being taken away to. He was loaded below deck and the ship cast off shortly after.

Leokas spent many days in silence, ignoring even the other caged creatures and the moans of what he guessed were the slaves below. There was only one person who treated the creatures and him kindly, and that was the man who brought him his meals. One day, Leokas took a chance and thanked the man for his food. The man was shocked by this, but rather than running away and reporting this to the captain, he replied in kind. The man, as it turned out, was the only crewman on the ship who spoke the language Leokas did, and they began speaking in secret whenever the man brought Leokas his meals. He introduced himself as Hector, and while Hector had little to speak of himself, he was full of questions about Leokas, who initially refused to answer, but when he realized Hector’s interests were genuine, he began to recount his story.

In time, Leokas managed to glean some information from Hector about the ship and its cargo. He found out that the ship was traveling from Zieram to Corrent, where most of the official cargo was to be sold and traded for goods that would then be bound westward, eventually unloading the slaves in a country somewhere in central Qennalce. Leokas asked if he was to be taken that far, to which Hector informed him that he and the other creatures were to be sold in a black market at their first stop in Corrent, a city on the eastern coast called Rasloc. Leokas asked as to what purpose the creatures were to be sold for. Hector told him that some were for breeding, some as exotic food sources, and others such as Leokas were to be sold to the wealthy as pets…

Leokas felt a rage within him he had never before, not even when he killed that man in the tavern. It was one thing to be called a pet when he was a free being, but to have been captured, stripped of his possessions, taken from his home and clan, and shipped across the sea to a foreign land, all because some rich person decided they wanted a minotaur for a pet?! Leokas’s anger welled into strength, and he tore his cage open, much to Hector’s astonishment. He stormed up to the deck of the ship, shouting his rage and attacking whatever crew got in his way. It took half the crew to subdue him and clap him in irons and chains. The captain called for Hector, and demanded an explanation.

Leokas was convinced Hector was going to get him killed when he told the captain how dangerous a beast he was, but instead, to Leokas’s surprise, the captain smiled a devilish grin. He declared Leokas would not be sold as a pet, but as a slave. Hector told him this meant he was worth more, and owing to his strength would likely fetch a high price. The captain ordered Leokas to be put in the brig, in an especially strong cell alone, and that Hector was to see to it that the minotaur was well-cared for.

As the weeks went by, the slave life went relatively easy for Leokas. He was left alone for the most part, but Hector visited more often and passed along information. Although Hector tried to convince the captain to sell Leokas to him, Hector had nowhere near enough money to afford him. He found out that Leokas was to be sold to a special client in Rasloc, one who voluntarily paid triple upon learning of Leokas’s capabilities, including Leokas’s equipment.

The ship pulled into the docks at Rasloc late in the afternoon, and the crew loaded up Leokas into a special cage which they covered before he was brought out with the rest of the goods and creatures. He could smell the salty air, and was barely able to see out of the cloth covering his cage. His cart was being driven by two men, and Hector was sitting in the cart beside his cage. He was taken to a warehouse as the sun set, left to wait for his new “master” to come for him. Hector gave him one last meal before he had to depart, and bade Leokas one last goodbye, and offered his hand. As Leokas shook it, Hector told him he hoped Leokas would one day be free and find his peace and happiness again.